Chapter 229.

PART 1.

Now that they are inside the ward which has slowed the time down for them, Josh and James turn to Hatori. “Alright. Tell us how exactly do you plan to solve this problem? Do you have a magical solution to breach those wards?” asked Josh.

“Well, the solution is magical.” Said Hatori. “Though it is not breaching. It is more like destroying.”

“Don’t joke about this Hatori!” said Josh furiously. “You know how serious this matter is.”

“So?” asked Hatori. “You think you have a better solution? You need to remove your political glasses and see the situation for what it really is. You cannot negotiate with these people. No number of concessions will change their mind. The only thing which we can do is to cause so much damage that they will be crippled effectively.”

“He’s right,” said James. “As a healer, I should say that all life is precious. But it does not mean I should let the people who endanger others live, to satisfy my morals.”

“Fine. What is your plan?” repeated Josh.

“Simple.” Said Hatori. he brought out the staff that he acquired all those years ago from Kemet. “I’ve cracked the secret to focus the sunlight like that ancient mage did. Unfortunately, it requires a lengthy ritual, which also needs advanced preparation. That preparation is the reason why you two are here.”

“What is our task?” asked James.

“James has to make sure that the runes I create are free from any mistakes. Just one wrong rune, and we could end up vaporizing ourselves. Josh must make sure that the mathematical equations make sense, or else we might end up using more power than we need. This entire island would be melted into slag if we do not pay attention to those.”

“No pressure or anything.” Sighed Josh. “What are we waiting for? Let’s start already. How much time do we have in here?”

“Probably four days by my calculation. By the time we go outside, twelve hours would have passed.” Said Hatori.

“No time to waste then. Did you bring any food?” asked James, already looking over the runes of Hatori.

Hatori nods. “Water as well,” he muttered distractedly, drawing more runes on the paper.

PART 2.

While James, Josh, and Hatori are busy with their work, things continue to proceed outside. While the politicians and diplomats continue their attempt to establish some negotiation to stop this madness, there are attempts to break through the siege from all sides. When these attempts fail, the enemy soldiers call out for a duel, which no one can answer because Tom and Hatori are not there.

In fact, due to their missing combat mages, they are having trouble maintaining a tight hold on this side. And the enemy has detected this weakness. As a result, they are experiencing the most attempts to break out from their side compared to anywhere else.

All the while, the refugees continue to come out of the city, though only ten people out of a hundred come out alive. Most of them are children since the parents sacrificed themselves to throw their children out of the city, where they are usually picked up by the allied military and taken to some safe area.

“Dammit. What can we do? Tom has still not recovered. At this rate, we might lose our hold here.” grumbled one commander.

“Why not send me?” asked Shin.

“What? You?” he asked in disbelief. “You might be a great musician, but I doubt you will be able to take these people in a duel.”

“You might not know this, but I did participate in the last inter-school dueling league.” Said Shin. “Besides, I have improved a lot since then. I am sure I can at least buy you some time if nothing else.”

“Very well.” agreed the commander. “Go and face them.”

PART 3.

Gordon observes from the castle, as one particular road is becoming a hotbed of activity. The two combat mages who were in charge there have suddenly disappeared, so many attempts to break out from there, and end this siege are currently going on there. When they fail, challenges and heckling follow, which is not drawing a response from the other side.

Gordon considers his misfortune that after becoming the king, he has to see his city like this, at the mercy of outsiders. But he was born into a noble family. The world bends to their whims, and this is no different. He is certain that they will come out on top, despite the difficulties they are facing.

He also observes a young man taking the battlefield. He replies to their taunts: “No need to come at me one-by-one. all ten of you can come at me once.” Said Shin.

“As if we would stoop so low as to fight a nameless one. Begone!” said the leader of the mages who is constantly calling out for the dueling challenges.

“Nah, I think you are afraid of losing to a nameless one like me,” said Shin with a smirk.

That was enough to anger them, and they all charged at him. Gordon shook his head. They all fell for his taunting. The young man disappears, and a note is played from somewhere unknown.

The effect of this note is obvious. The attacking spells of two of the mages turn on them, and the man and the woman annihilate each other by their own hands. The bells tingle, and the vision gets hazy. The screen of the king goes static, though does not lose the video completely.

Several notes are played rapidly, and three of the enemy mages are cut down by the sharp wind, creating a guizer of blood, as the pieces of their body fall to the ground.

Another note is played, and this time, the surviving mages start to bleed from their ears. The speaker of the television which the king is using to watch this also blown up, and the TV catches fire afterwards.

PART 4.

Now that they have lost their hearing, it is easier for Shin to target them. Playing a slow rumbling note, he moves the earth, and several columns of rock punch above the ground, while four of the mages are impaled on them. It is a rather brutal sight, as these four mages hang from these pillars, screaming in agony, which shortly ends as they die from blood loss and their vital organs being damaged.

The final survivor tries to escape. He is familiar with the earth element; therefore, he can sense what is coming at him from the ground. Now, he sinks into the earth, trying to escape through the ground and get away as fast as possible.

Shin beats his feet to the ground in a rhythm, which starts to shake the surrounding area. He would like to sing some songs about shaking and breaking the ground, but unfortunately, he is not a great writer of songs, even though composing the music comes to him naturally.

Soon enough, the smashed and destroyed body of the final challenger is spat out of the ground, and humming in contentment, Shin returns to his camp while the bells in his hair jingle with each of his steps.

After this display, no one tries to challenge them for a duel, and the attempts to break through this side also stop for a while. However, they never stopped completely, as they started to try several hours later.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

PART 5.

While Gordon is busy watching the exploits of Shin, the trio are discussing what to do about this siege. “We are experiencing resistance from the city; many people are trying to flee. Only our soldiers are keeping them inside.” Reported Alan.

“We can’t let them flee.” Said Victoria. “It would undermine our authority. Not to mention, send the message that we are weak.”

“I hear some people have died in the escaping attempts.” Asked Justice. At Alan’s nod, he continues. “Then I believe it is time to make this the official stance: kill anyone who is trying to leave Londinium.”

Though Alan is aware of the repercussions of this policy, he is also aware that they are in the middle of a war. Such policies have to be implemented. “I’ll inform the officers in charge.” He said and then left the room.

“I get the feeling that he didn’t like your suggestion.” Said Victoria.

“He shouldn’t. but he is a pragmatic man, he will not waver from our mission.” Said Justice confidently.

PART 6.

The Albions who switched sides with the allied forces watch, as a massacre is taking place right in front of them. At first, the soldiers were rather restrained, willing to let go of the children at least. But now, they have abandoned that little empathy as well.

They go to request aid from the monarchs, who start to discuss this matter. “To be honest, I do feel we should help out these people. We don’t want them to resent us for the rest of their lives.” Said the pharaoh.

“But where would we get the manpower for this?” asked Batya.

“We are not lacking in it, remember?” reminds Avinash. “I do think we can contribute some of our reserves for this operation.”

“That is fine.” Said the Kaiser. Turning to the Albion representative, he continues. “But do not expect us to go inside of the city and perform a rescue operation and risk triggering those wards. As long as the king is inside, we cannot capture the city, so that is the best help we can give you.”

Though the Albion felt bitter for being given such terms, they accepted them nonetheless, since they did not have any other choice.

PART 7.

Twelve hours later, Hatori comes out with Josh and James, ready with his solution. He explains to the monarchs how it works. “Basically, we use these ready-made runes to amplify the sunlight to such an extent that it becomes a destructive beam. Since it will be done from the skies, the target area could be very large, and the potential for destruction will also be large.”

“That is fine. But shouldn’t you test it first?” pointed out Avinash.

“I knew you would say this. The runes which I have prepared for the city cannot be reused, the amplified light is so strong that it burns through those runes as well. However, I have prepared a smaller array. I do think we should test it somewhere else though.” said Hatori, showing them a much smaller collection of runes.

Even though the test array is smaller, it still does not make sense to them. Maybe someone who is a rune expert might understand it, but as things are now, it is not possible to make someone study it.

The monarchs fly out of the area in an airship with their guards and Hatori, where he performs the ritual to activate the test array. He hands one part of the array to the guards and tells them to stand in a particular direction, while he stands in the center. He channels magic, and immediately, the light gets too bright for them to see.

The island below has been turned into a molten slab floating in the sea. The water that was caught in this spell was also turned into steam, and more steam continued to rise as the ocean tried to cool this island, while the water in the surrounding area also started to cool down. The paper on which Hatori drew the runes fizzles into nothing, as they turn their airship around, and go back to the siege side of Londinium.

They all remain quiet after witnessing the destruction. Privately, they all feel threatened by such a spell in the hands of just one mage, but given it clearly requires very specific instructions to execute, as well as multiple people to perform the ritual, is the only reason they are not trying to murder Hatori out of paranoia. Not that Hatori would go down easily, he is prepared for that possibility. Not to mention, Avinash will not sit idly as Hatori gets attacked.

Satisfied with the test, the rulers make an announcement to the enemy hold up in the Londinium. “King Gordon, the allied forces advise you to surrender. Or else, prepare to suffer a city-wide destructive spell. For your people, and your nation, surrender wisely, and hand over the conspirators who started this war.”

This announcement is repeated multiple times, and yet no response has come from the city, apart from the public which is fleeing in the increasing number. Half of the city has already gotten empty, though not all the people escaped alive.

PART 8.

Another meeting is called in the castle, this time, King Gordon is also part of the discussion. “Do you think they really have some city-destroying spell?” asked Justice.

“Doubt it,” said Gordon. “Those spells are extremely difficult to pull off, and that hodgepodge bunch is unlikely to perform those rituals in front of everyone’s view because of the fear of losing their secrets.”

“In short, we can stop worrying about it?” asked Alan.

“Exactly.” Said the king confidently.

After this discussion, they stopped thinking about that threat, even though it is being repeated every few hours, and focused on stopping the people who are slipping through their fingers.

PART 9.

They waited until the next day, hoping that their warning would have some effect. But a week passed by, and there have been no talks between the two sides, much less talks of surrender.

Avinash finally has enough of this. “How long are we going to keep warning them? They are not listening. This is just prolonging the siege.” He said to the monarchs.

“You should cultivate your patience, young king.” said the pharaoh. “Thousands of lives are at stake here.”

“Thousands of lives.” Mocked Avinash. “You were too happy when we killed thousands of soldiers to secure your borders. So don’t lecture me here.”

“Why you!—” said the pharaoh, stung by that reply.

“I agree with the king.” said the Kaiser. “It is clear at this point they will not surrender. The ruler who is willing to slaughter his own people is not worthy to speak with us anyway.”

“Then what, do we use that terrible spell?” asked Meng Hao.

“Indeed.” Confirms the emperor. “Call the man. It is time that he performs that spell.”

An hour later, Hatori is summoned. Due to the size of the target, he needed thirty people who had to stand in various areas surrounding Londinium. Of course, Hatori has to be in the center to activate the runes, and they have to maintain perfect coordination despite the distance. Otherwise, the spell would just not work. Hatori has secured the spell, so if it does not work for some reason, the worst thing it could do is just not work, rather than kill them in a burst of solar light.

As Hatori channels the magic, the runes pull on it across the city. The sky gets too bright to look at, the heat suddenly gets unbearable, and in a few moments, the entire city of Londinium has turned into a molten slag.